Sunday, July 12, 2009

Today is the last day of my drill weekend and I must say I'm glad that its over. I talked to Ms. Stampley at lunch today and we had a great conversation that involved quite a few books.Today, I'm reading "Fatal" by Michael Palmer. (www.michaelpalmerbooks.com) It's a medical suspense novel that involves, among other things, a grandmother who is dealing her her grand daughter who was normal until she was given the DPT and MMR vaccines. Pretty good, so far. The book is quite timely for me, as Kaeden, my 6 month old, got his 4 month shots on Monday.

Although I had heard of and considered the vaccine debate, I wasn't seriously thining of bucking the system and skipping my son's vaccines on principle.In fact, I had no thought of the side effects until Wednesday night, when I realized that Kaeden was still cranky and acting completely out of character.

First off, Kaeden is such a good tempered baby, that he rarely cries. And when he does its because he is hungry (and he can eat) or because he needs his diaper changed. His daycare provider was worried when I picked him up because he had been crying most of the day. When we got home, he continued this behavior. He cried and screamed. He wouldn't eat and he didn't sleep well through the night. I think he cried more during that day than he had his entire life!

I took him to the doctor on Thursday and had him checked out, concerned that maybe had had an ear infection or something. The doctor said that nothing was wrong and that he was still reacting to the vaccines (pain in his legs where he got the shots; two in each) and suggested giving him Tylenol every 4-6 hours for about a day or so and if he didn't seem better after that to bring him back.

Which I did. And it appears to have worked. He seems to be back to his happy, baby self.But now I have some fears about his next set of shots, due in August. Friendly advice has been to just give him the tylenol before we go to the doctor. But what about the possible side effects to his brain. I've since read about DTP and a correlation to/with Autism and the concern that we are over vaccinating our children and the increase in Autism, ADHD, even childhood diabetes.

I'm not out to become an activist or anything, but I do feel that as parents we need to become more informed about what we're putting in our children. For more information, go to www.nvic.org